Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Murder on the Orient Express

In case you aren't familiar with the basic plot, Poirot is on a train from Istanbul to Paris when the train gets stopped in Yugoslavia by snow on the tracks. There's a murder and they don't want to bring in the Yugoslav police (commies!) until they've already solved it. Poirot quickly determines that most of the passengers are all connected with a crime that took place in the US many years ago (and not at all based on the Lindbergh baby).

I like the twist on the contained environment, but you don't get a sense of the claustrophobia that must have been there-- train cars stuck in snow with murder? There should have been more tension, but that's not Christie's style. What I find most ingenious about Christie's work isn't how her detectives solve the crimes but rather in ingenuity of her criminals. Poirot just kinda sits back and thinks through details only he's noticed. But the real genius of Christie is how intricate the murder plots are.

Book Provided by... my local library for my Kindle!

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